Despite a promising first half No Saints for Sinners runs out of steam in the final half hour. The film tells the story of a member of the IRA (Mickey) who goes on the run(ending up in Los Angeles) after shooting one of his comrades while on a mission to retrieve some stolen drugs. Mickey is disillusioned with the movement for becoming involved solely in criminality (unlike the former days of both criminality and fighting the British). Like a lot of criminals his character is a paradox. He appears to have a conscious but it is wrapped up in his own sense of right. The man he shoots (Mercer) has no such compunction.
The movie also has a certain inevitability about it - falling in with his new girlfriends seedy brother he gets sucked into helping the brother out of a predicament involving - you guessed it - drugs. As the story unfolds there is good character development and the story takes a predictable but believable arc. When the attempt is made to sell the narcotics to a Chinese buyer the film unravels as the scene is played with semi comedy mixed with violence. Then the inevitability kicks in as Mickeys past catches up with him.
The direction is OK for such a low budget effort - if you really want to see bad camera work watch A Horrible Way to Die - believe me No Saints for Sinners was not that bad. The lead actor was born in Belfast- his accent and that of the Mercer character are wholly authentic.
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